Tekla.  The false-hearted wretch!

Gustav.  When?

Tekla.  He leaves to-night, with the eight-o’clock boat.

Gustav.  And then—­

Tekla.  At nine! [A noise is heard from the adjoining room] Who can be living in there that makes such a racket?

Gustav.  Let’s see! [Goes over and looks through the keyhole] There’s a table that has been upset, and a smashed water caraffe—­ that’s all!  I shouldn’t wonder if they had left a dog locked up in there.—­At nine o’clock then?

Tekla.  All right!  And let him answer for it himself.—­What a depth of deceit!  And he who has always preached about truthfulness, and tried to teach me to tell the truth!—­But wait a little—­how was it now?  He received me with something like hostility—­didn’t meet me at the landing—­and then—­and then he made some remark about young men on board the boat, which I pretended not to hear—­but how could he know?  Wait—­and then he began to philosophise about women—­and then the spectre of you seemed to be haunting him—­and he talked of becoming a sculptor, that being the art of the time—­exactly in accordance with your old speculations!

Gustav.  No, really!

Tekla.  No, really?—­Oh, now I understand!  Now I begin to see what a hideous creature you are!  You have been here before and stabbed him to death!  It was you who had been sitting there on the sofa; it was you who made him think himself an epileptic—­that he had to live in celibacy; that he ought to rise in rebellion against his wife; yes, it was you!—­How long have you been here?

Gustav.  I have been here a week.

Tekla.  It was you, then, I saw on board the boat?

Gustav.  It was.

Tekla.  And now you were thinking you could trap me?

Gustav.  It has been done.

Tekla.  Not yet!

Gustav.  Yes!

Tekla.  Like a wolf you went after my lamb.  You came here with a villainous plan to break up my happiness, and you were carrying it out, when my eyes were opened, and I foiled you.

Gustav.  Not quite that way, if you please.  This is how it happened in reality.  Of course, it has been my secret hope that disaster might overtake you.  But I felt practically certain that no interference on my part was required.  And besides, I have been far too busy to have any time left for intriguing.  But when I happened to be moving about a bit, and happened to see you with those young men on board the boat, then I guessed the time had come for me to take a look at the situation.  I came here, and your lamb threw itself into the arms of the wolf.  I won his affection by some sort of reminiscent impression which I shall not be tactless enough to explain to you.  At first he aroused my sympathy, because he seemed to be in the same fix as I was once.